Tenderly balanced, deeply insightful writing with a few minor flaws.
In this frank debut memoir, Rajeev outlines the difficulties of growing up in America as the daughter of Indian immigrants.
“My father was so upset that I was born a girl, he literally became mad at God,” reflects Rajeev who was born in Queens in 1990. Being a daughter meant that she was not only “unwanted,” but “born without a voice.” The author seeks to understand her heritage, accomplish the dreams her parents abandoned, and find a voice of her own. She starts by recalling her father’s arrival in the United States—a boat worker who entered the country as an undocumented immigrant by jumping ship in New Orleans. She recounts his struggle to obtain a green card after venturing to New York and how her mother gave birth to her while in the U.S. on a visitor visa. Rajeev explains the precariousness of the immigrant experience, which often depends on the kindness of strangers. She describes enduring racism, particularly after 9/11, and some of her triumphs, including earning her doctorate in sociology. Rajeev’s writing provides a fresh, forthright catalog of the demands placed on immigrant families, which are “always compromising their wellbeing, whether that be mental or physical, to provide structure to their family.” The author’s balanced viewpoint considers her parents’ hidden pain as well as her own: “He was ok with having his daughter hate him. He hated himself right now too.” Rajeev places significant emphasis on her father’s experiences, which are integral to her story, but in a memoir that explores female subjugation, some readers may expect the narrative to be framed with women as a priority. Also, the dialogue, which is presented in script form, is bland, and would benefit from being integrated into the text: “Other kids: You’re Indian? Me: Yes. Other kids: So, you must be really smart. Me: I don’t know.” Still, this is a valuable unpacking of Indian immigrant life—its restrictions and possibilities—from the perspective of an astute author.
Tenderly balanced, deeply insightful writing with a few minor flaws.Pub Date: Nov. 20, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5445-1716-2
Page Count: 274
Publisher: Lioncrest Publishing
Review Posted Online: April 6, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.
A former New York City dancer reflects on her zesty heyday in the 1970s.
Discovered on a Manhattan street in 2020 and introduced on Stanton’s Humans of New York Instagram page, Johnson, then 76, shares her dynamic history as a “fiercely independent” Black burlesque dancer who used the stage name Tanqueray and became a celebrated fixture in midtown adult theaters. “I was the only black girl making white girl money,” she boasts, telling a vibrant story about sex and struggle in a bygone era. Frank and unapologetic, Johnson vividly captures aspects of her former life as a stage seductress shimmying to blues tracks during 18-minute sets or sewing lingerie for plus-sized dancers. Though her work was far from the Broadway shows she dreamed about, it eventually became all about the nightly hustle to simply survive. Her anecdotes are humorous, heartfelt, and supremely captivating, recounted with the passion of a true survivor and the acerbic wit of a weathered, street-wise New Yorker. She shares stories of growing up in an abusive household in Albany in the 1940s, a teenage pregnancy, and prison time for robbery as nonchalantly as she recalls selling rhinestone G-strings to prostitutes to make them sparkle in the headlights of passing cars. Complemented by an array of revealing personal photographs, the narrative alternates between heartfelt nostalgia about the seedier side of Manhattan’s go-go scene and funny quips about her unconventional stage performances. Encounters with a variety of hardworking dancers, drag queens, and pimps, plus an account of the complexities of a first love with a drug-addled hustler, fill out the memoir with personality and candor. With a narrative assist from Stanton, the result is a consistently titillating and often moving story of human struggle as well as an insider glimpse into the days when Times Square was considered the Big Apple’s gloriously unpolished underbelly. The book also includes Yee’s lush watercolor illustrations.
A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.Pub Date: July 12, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-27827-2
Page Count: 192
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2022
Not so deep, but a delightful tip of the hat to the pleasures—and power—of glamour.
A coffee-table book celebrates Michelle Obama’s sense of fashion.
Illustrated with hundreds of full-color photographs, Obama’s chatty latest book begins with some school portraits from the author’s childhood in Chicago and fond memories of back-to-school shopping at Sears, then jumps into the intricacies of clothing oneself as the spouse of a presidential candidate and as the first lady. “People looked forward to the outfits, and once I got their attention, they listened to what I had to say. This is the soft power of fashion,” she says. Obama is grateful and frank about all the help she got along the way, and the volume includes a long section written by her primary wardrobe stylist, Koop—28 years old when she first took the job—and shorter sections by makeup artists and several hair stylists, who worked with wigs and hair extensions as Obama transitioned back to her natural hair, and grew out her bangs, at the end of her husband’s second term. Many of the designers of the author’s gowns, notably Jason Wu, who designed several of her more striking outfits, also contribute appreciative memories. Besides candid and more formal photographs, the volume features many sketches of her gowns by their designers, closeups on details of those gowns, and magazine covers from Better Homes & Gardens to Vogue. The author writes that as a Black woman, “I was under a particularly white-hot glare, constantly appraised for whether my outfits were ‘acceptable’ and ‘appropriate,’ the color of my skin somehow inviting even more judgment than the color of my dresses.” Overall, though, this is generally a canny, upbeat volume, with little in the way of surprising revelations.
Not so deep, but a delightful tip of the hat to the pleasures—and power—of glamour.Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9780593800706
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 7, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2026
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